Important Questions and Answers: Engineer'S Responsibility For Safety

ENGINEER‟S RESPONSIBILITY FOR SAFETY

1. Define Risk?

A risk is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur.

Risk = Probability X Consequences.

2. What are the factors for safety and risk?

• Voluntary and Involuntary risk

• Short-term and Long-term risk

• Expected probability

• Reversible effects

• Threshold levels to risk

• Delayed or Immediate risk etc

3. What are the drawbacks in the definition of Lawrence?

• Underestimation of risks

• Overestimation of risks

• No estimation of risks

4. Give the categories of Risk?

• Low consequence, Low probability (which can be ignored)

• Low consequence, High probability

• High consequence, Low probability

• High consequence, High probability

5.What are the factors that affect Risk Acceptability?

·       Voluntarism and control

·       Effect of information on risk assessment

·       Job related pressures

·       Magnitude and proximity of the people facing risk

6. What is the knowledge required to assess the risk?

• Data in design

• Uncertainties in design

• Testing for safety

• Analytical testing

• Risk-benefit analysis

7. What are the analytical methods?

• Scenario analysis

• Failure modes & effect analysis

• Fault tree analysis

• Event tree analysis etc.

8. What are the three conditions referred as safe exit?

• Assure when a product fails it will fail safely.

• Assure that the product can be abandoned safely.

• Assure that the user can safely escape the product.

9. How will an engineer assess the safety?

• The risks connected to a project or product must be identified.

• The purposes of the project or product must be identified and ranked in importance.

• Costs of reducing risks must be estimated.

•  The costs must be weighed against both organizational goals and degrees of acceptability of risks to clients and the public.

• The project or product must be tested and then either carried outor manufactured.

10. What are the reasons for Risk-Benefit Analysis?

1. Risk-benefit analysis is concerned with the advisability of undertaking a project.

2. It helps in deciding which design has greater advantages.

3.  It assists the engineers to identify a particular design scores higher with that of the another one.

11.            Are the engineers responsible to educate the public for safe operation of the equipment? How?

Yes, as per the engineers are concerned with they should have their duty as to protect for the safety and well being of the general public. Analyzing the risk and safety aspects of their designs can do this.

12.            Define Safety?

In the definition stated by William W. Lawrence safety is defined, as a thing is safe if its risks are acceptable. A thing is safe with respect to a given person or group, at a given time, if its risk is fully known, if those risks would be judged acceptable, in light of settled value principles. In the view of objective, safety is a matter of how people would find risks acceptable or unacceptable.

13.            What is the definition of risks?

A risk is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur. Risk is the possibility of suffering harm or loss. It is also defined as the probability of a specified level of hazardous consequences, being realized. Hence Risk (R) is the product of Probability (P) and consequence(C) (i.e) R = P * C

14.            Define Acceptability of risks?

A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer apprehensive about it. Doubtfulness depends mainly on how the people take the risk or how people perceive it.

15.            What are the positive uncertainties in determining risks?

There are three positive uncertainties. They are: a. Purpose of designing

b. Application of the product

c. Materials and the skill used for producing the product.

16.            Define Risk-Benefit Analysis?

Risk benefit analysis is a method that helps the engineers to analyze the risk in a project and to determine whether a project should be implemented or not. In risk benefit analysis, the risks and benefits of a product are allotted to money amounts, and the most benefitiable ratio between risks and benefits is calculated.

17.            What does Strict Liability mean?

Strict liability means if the sold product is defective; the manufacturer concerned is liable for any harm that results to users. Negligible is not at all an issue based.

18.            What is the main barrier to educational attempts?

An important barrier to educational attempt is that people belief change slow and are extra ordinarily resistant to new information.

19. What happens to the products that are not safe?

Products that are not safe incur secondary costs to the manufacturer beyond the primary costs that must also be taken into account costs associated with warranty expenses, loss of customer will and even loss of customers and so.

20. What was the problem in the Chernobyl reactor?

The problem was that,

i. The output was maintained to satisfy an unexpected demand.

ii. The control device was not properly reprogrammed to maintain power at the required level.

iii. Instead of leaving fifteen control rods as required, the operators raised almost all control rods because at the low power level, the fuel had become poisoned.